1 post in this topic

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a voice chat feature baked into World of Warcraft. The feature was one that many users had desired for, but they mustn't have been careful when making their wishes. The feature came, and was almost instantly reviled and panned by all who came to try it. Quietly left to die, it has since seen little love. Most simply assumed that the attempt was a loss, and that would be the end for the MMO's attempt to service the need. After all, 3rd party apps were plentiful and established.

This turns out to be a story with a potentially better ending, as the Alpha participants in World of Warcraft: Legion are now seeing a Battle.net Alpha build avaiable. The build features a totally revamped and service-wide VoIP functionality. It is not just a beacon of hope for those hoping to see the feature in WoW, but seemingly it will be something that will be available to most, if not all, of Blizzard's games.

This is hugely exciting, I for one do not enjoy having to rely on third party options for my VoIP during gaming. The inclusion into games natively is preferable for many, as it not only is free, but usually is the most seamless to set up. If a user is playing the game, then they have all of the software required to use the feature, instead of having to tinker with outside programs.

Images of the Alpha have popped up on @MysticalOS on Twitter. MysticalOS is the creator of several popular WoW mods, including Deadly Boss Mods. These are the images that he has published:

Let us know what you think of this pretty large upcoming addition to the Battle.net list of services. Hit the comment box below!

Recently Browsing
0 members

Similar Content

The Battle.net Gift Card is available in several retail stores and it makes you able to gift items such as Hearthstone Expert Card Packs, the Iron Skyreaver mount in WoW, Heroes in HotS or Loot boxes from Overwatch to your friends.
The Gift Card is a great Christmas present for any player of Blizzard games! Let's see if we get the option to buy a virtual gift card in the future.
Blizzard Entertainment
Have you ever wanted to give a friend a few Hearthstone Expert Card Packs? Or gift that epic Iron Skyreaver mount to your World of Warcraft guildmate? Or a Hero from Heroes of the Storm, or a Loot box for Overwatch? Good news! We’ve got you covered with one simple solution — the Battle.net Gift Card.
This €20/£15 gift card is now available at a wide range of retailers across Europe. Simply pick one up at any of the stores listed below and give it to a friend. All they need to do is claim the code on the back of the card in order to charge up their Battle.net Balance, which can be used to purchase a variety of Blizzard digital items, games, and services. You can also use the gift card to charge up your own balance.
For a full overview of what you can buy with Battle.net Balance, visit the Battle.net Shop. Here are just a few examples of the cool stuff you can give a friend via the Battle.net Gift Card:

Remember that you can also gift your friends specific digital items directly from the Battle.net Shop. You can find the full list of retail stores selling the Gift card here.
(Source)

Jeff Kaplan fills us in on the current status.
News from the Overwatch side of things as Jeff Kaplan shares the new status of the feature.

Well, with the Quick Join option in WoW hammering home the need for an "appear offline" option, you wouldn't have expected the first update on the matter in 2+ years to come from Overwatch. But, Jeff Kaplan really likes to interact with the fans and keep them updated so we got this little snippet of info and hope recently:
Jeff Kaplan
We would like to add an "Appear Offline" option to Overwatch. We are in the process of coordinating this with Battle.net and the other game teams. Because our social system is a cross-game system (WoW, Hearthstone, Heroes, SC2, D3) adding this functionality is not trivial for us. I know there has been discussion around this feature for a long time, and things have definitely not moved at a rate which is acceptable, I can assure you we care about the feature and want to figure out how to make it happen.
For your particular issue regarding invites, you can go into the Social Options menu and turn off invites.
Thanks for being patient with us.
(Source)
Now, this is pretty much exactly the type of message we're used to getting on the subject, like this great announcement from 4 years ago, but the most recent info we could find before this was Lore's tweet on the matter:
So this should mean the issue is back in development and hopefully coming to battle.net "soon", except this time it should be the usual Blizzard soon and not the "never" soon!

Well, it seems the battle.net name is still here since the name keeps being featured in these patches, making that announcement from a while ago even more confusing. In any case, there has been a new patch that finally and officially added Blizzard Voice to the suite of features of the Battle.net client. You can also now make Chat Channels for both voice and text communication with friends and there's a whole bunch of other fixes and changes to be seen.
October 20
Improvements
Channels
You can now create a channel to use voice and text chat with your friends.
To start a channel, use the "Create a Channel" button, or right-click your friends on the Friends List.
All channel members have permission to add or remove their friends from and channel.
Players can be dragged from the Friends List to channels to make adding individuals quick and easy.
Voice Chat
Blizzard Voice provides high quality voice audio and superior stability, all from the Desktop App you are already using!
A full range of audio settings allow you to customize your voice experience.
Additional controls in the chat channel allow you to individually mute and change player volume.
Chat
Send and receive URLS as clickable hyperlinks!
Users can now markdown text with bold, italics, strikethrough effects in chat. Here's how to add the markdown:
Bold = ** or __ before and after the word/s you want to make bold.
Italics = _ before and after the word/s you want to make italicized.
Strikethrough = ~~ before and after the word/s you want to strikethrough.
Sounds & Notifications
Revamped the sounds and notification settings for the App.
All sound and notification settings have been reset to their defaults, and some will now be ON by default.
General
The icon in the upper left corner of the friends list now shows you your own in-game status as others will see you.
Bug Fixes
Streaming
Fixed various stability and performance problems with streaming.
Fixed some issues that would cause audio degradation in streams.
General
Fixed an issue that would prevent AltGr from functioning in browser windows.
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash on startup.
Fixed an issue that would occasionally cause \"session expired\" errors when reconnecting after having logged in from another location.
Known Issues
Currently voice chat in Battle.net App and Overwatch are separate systems, meaning it is possible to be in more than one voice channel at the same time.

Blizzard servers continue being victims of DDoS attacks for a second time during less than 24 hours.
First Attacks
It's been a busy day for Legion yesterday. The release of the Emerald Nightmare, World Bosses and Mythic+ dungeons, you all know it. 15 hours ago, the service providers began being affected by DDoS attacks. These usually cause immense in-game lag, disconnects and not being able to reconnect afterwards. The servers were attacked for almost two hours until this issue got resolved. Here are the corresponding tweets from Blizzard's Customer Service.
Attack #2
While this time is really strange for attacking (5 AM EST) the attackers continue with a second wave.
Many players are reporting loss of Ancient Mana Withered Army Training and all the issues that come with disconnects such as losing Mythic Keystone.
It's unknown if there will be more attacks in the coming hours, but we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, you can read the discussion on reddit and follow BlizzardCS on Twitter for further updates.

Mobile Authenticator holders now have the option to verify and log into their account by simply tapping a button on the screen of their device!
This update to the current Mobile Authenticator will allow you to securely log into your account by simply tapping the Approve button on your mobile device instead of entering a security code. The good old security code option is still available, if you prefer it. The Mobile Authenticator with this new feature is available to iOS and Android users.
Blizzard Entertainment
Here at Blizzard we take account security seriously, which is why we recommend all accounts have an authenticator attached – but we also understand the importance of being able to access your account easily. Enter the One-Button Authenticator! This update to the current Mobile Authenticator will allow you to securely log into your account by simply clicking Approve on your mobile device instead of entering a security code. Should you wish to use a security code to log in that option still remains available.
Whenever* a log in attempt occurs on your account you will be notified via the app and prompted to Approve or Deny the request. You can also approve log in requests with notifications on your mobile or smartwatch without even opening the app! We hope this will help ease the log in process for those of you that already have an authenticator and encourage those of you who don’t to give it a try. You can find out more about authenticators on our Battle.net Authenticator FAQ.
The Mobile Authenticator with the new One-Button feature is available now on iOS® and Android™.
*Please note that by default you will only need to approve a log in attempt once a week per device. You can change this setting on your Battle.net Account Management page.
(source)
Having an Authenticator ensures that your account is completely hacker-proof. Some people find it inconvenient, but you can change the setting of how often you need to authorise a login attempt. Now, with the one button option, it is even easier to use! WoW players should also bear in mind that if they have an active Authenticator, they receive the Core Hound Pup pet as a reward.